Gravity of the school fees problem

In Malawi, there are a number of barriers to access to education and key among these that have been cited by numerous studies including the government and several other players in the education field is poverty. According to the World Bank report of December, 2025, 75% of the population in Malawi live on less than U$3 per day. With a huge population relying on subsistence farming, it’s an uphill task for most families to afford boarding fees in schools which usually hovers around $120 per term for most schools but can go much higher for others. This problem has for a long time contributed to very low secondary school completion rates and fuelling cases of early marriages when it comes to girls.

The new government realised the gravity of this problem and in a landmark historic reform, introduced free secondary school for all day secondary schools from January, 2026! We greatly commend them for that. However, students in boarding schools – usually where the best performing students are selected are still paying boarding fees. Similarly, students in open day secondary schools equally need help since they are also paying fees. School fees Relief not only supports such students with school fees but also helps with other education related expenses such as stationery, groceries, toiletries, uniform and others. The aim is to help them totally focus on their studies by not having to stress about school fees, stationery and other materials that can make learning difficult. Primary education has been free since the advent of multi-party democracy in 1994 in Malawi.

Girl Empowernment

How You Can Support

Well-wishers like you can choose from any of the three categories below:

1. “Adopting” a student where you pay the entire fees and education related expenses of a student or students. In this case, you are made to know the students you are supporting and follow their academic progress. The amount here ranges from about $120 - $350 per year depending on whether it’s an open or boarding school.
2. Alternatively, you can choose to contribute to the pool and give a once off donation of any amount.
3. Contribute towards stationery – books, pens, mathematical sets and calculators. It was quite shocking and sad when we noted that many students struggled to even buy an ordinary pen. This speaks volumes of the levels of poverty we are dealing with here. In this category, you can kindly contribute $10 which can cater for notebooks and pens for an entire term.
4. Apart from the above, you can also choose to support our girl child empowerment project which is optional. For more information on the nature of our activities, visit the girl empowerment section.

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